United States President-elect Donald Trump is encouraging a Florida lawmaker who celebrated the killing of an American citizen by Israeli forces to run for Congress.
Trump said in a social media post on Sunday that if state Sen. Randy Fine decides to run for a congressional seat in Florida, the state lawmaker would have his “full and complete support.”
Fine, who has a long history of anti-Muslim statements, sparked outrage earlier this year when he appeared to praise the killing of Esenur Ezgi Ezgi, an American activist who was shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. was shot.
“Throw stones, get shot. One less #MuslimTerror ist. #FireAway,” Fine wrote in a social media post in September.
Aigi was participating in a peaceful protest when she was shot. Both Israel and the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden have dismissed his killing as an accident.
Fine’s post — which X (formerly Twitter) found violated its violent speech policy — is part of a long list of inflammatory, anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic comments by the state lawmaker.
Rasha Mubarak, a Palestinian-American activist from Florida, told Al Jazeera, “Lalit is no friend of anyone except fascism.”
“Endorsing Trump signals deep engagement with violent, fascist elements within the capitalist class whose interests are served by sowing division and maintaining the dominance of imperialism.”
Fine frequently declares that America has a “Muslim problem.” In 2021, when a social media user pointed out that Palestinians were being driven out of their homes by Israel, he responded: “#BlowThemUp”.
According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), he also sent a private message to a Florida resident, saying: “Go blow yourself up!”
Two years earlier, Fine had called Jews who supported Palestinian rights “Judenrat” – Nazi collaborators.
Last year, Fine had argued that the fear of Muslims was justified.
“Although many Muslims are not terrorists, they are radicals, not mainstream,” he wrote in a post on X. “Now is the time to speak the truth, not bathe in political correctness that will kill us.”
Fine’s office did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Over the past few years, CAIR has called on Florida lawmakers to censure and punish Fine, including for his recent comments on Iggy’s murder.
CAIR’s deputy executive director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, said in May, “We struggle to think of another time in modern American history when an elected official openly celebrated the killing of an American by a foreign government and “Encouraged more such killings.”
“Randy Fine has made it clear where his priorities lie, and it is not with the American people. We urge the Florida House of Representatives to censure him for this abhorrent, un-American rhetoric.”
Despite celebrating the killing of an American woman by a foreign military, Trump described Fine as “America’s first patriot.”
He called on her to run for the seat of Congressman Mike Waltz, who will be leaving his seat to serve in the White House as national security advisor.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will call a special election to fill the vacancy next year.
Fine, who previously served in the Florida House of Representatives and was recently elected to the state Senate, has not announced his candidacy, but he welcomed Trump’s statement.
Addressing the future president, he wrote, “It will be the honor of my life to be one of your foot soldiers.” “Your confidence is tremendous and I will have news to share soon!”
Trump himself has regularly spread anti-Muslim rhetoric, including saying that the Quran, Islam’s holy book, teaches “very negative sentiment” and declaring that “Islam hates us”.
During his first term as President he also imposed a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries.
But this year, the former president softened his tone, appealing to Arab and Muslim voters and promising to bring “peace” to the Middle East.
Trump’s endorsement of Fine, as well as some of his staunchly pro-Israel Cabinet picks, highlights the depth of his alliance with far-right forces.
